Various apparatuses have been developed to destack items from a magazine of such items in an automated fashion. Conventional destacking apparatuses typically employ suction cups or a vacuum to releasably engage and transport layers of a given material during a destacking operation. Although such conventional arrangements may be satisfactory in certain applications, implementing known approaches for destacking relatively thin materials having varying porosity renders conventional arrangements unworkable.
Moreover, it is often desirable to automate, either partially or completely, a number of processes of a destacking operation. Many conventional material handling and destacking apparatuses and methods are not well suited for a high degree of automation, particularly destacking processes which have tight positional tolerance requirements.
There is a need for improved material layer destacking apparatuses and methodologies. There is a further need for such apparatuses and methodologies that can safely and precisely position destacked material layers of varying porosity in an automated assembly environment, such as in an automated fuel cell assembly plant. The present invention fulfills these and other needs.